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Friday, November 29, 2013

Thanksgiving Reflections

We are, by nature (sin nature), ungrateful beings. Oh, we might, with proper training from childhood, learn to be thankful on cue. We can even feel warm feelings of gratitude when nice things are done. But, hostile to God, it is part of our sin nature to refuse to give thanks to Him (Rom 1:21). So a day of thanks built into our year is a good thing. We have much to be thankful for and many to thank. Still, I wonder, every year, exactly what atheists are doing with it.

I found an article, Grateful Without God, that gives hints on the secular view of Thanksgiving. Maggie Ardiente, director of development and communications for the American Humanist Association, tells us, "It is important for us as nonbelievers to recognize that we are lucky in the grand scheme of the universe and to spend this time with our friends and family, and the tradition of doing that once a year, whether you are religious or not, is a valuable thing to do."

"The grand scheme of the universe"? A scheme is a large-scale plan for putting a particular idea into affect. Are they suggesting there is intelligence in the universe aiming at executing a plan? Well, of course not. So ... what are you trying to say?

The article goes on to claim "Secular grace typically recognizes the animals who gave their lives for the feast, the people who prepared the meal and even the elements of nature that contributed to it", as if animals "gave their lives for the feast" willingly or that "the elements of nature" contained some intelligence, some good will with which to offer contributions.

Adam Lee wrote An Atheist Dinner Benediction that allows for a "prayer" at Thanksgiving without God. Of course, there are requests made to, apparently, no one at all. Jennifer Beahan gives thanks to "Nature" as if Nature has some intelligence to give good things to us. So what is the point?

One article entitled "Godless Thanksgiving" offers a list of possible folk to thank, including farmers, soldiers, doctors, engineers, scientists, friends and family ... all good. But they also include "Modern Technology" and "Science" as something to thank. "Science and scientists are the ones who have helped make our world more understandable and hence have improved our ability to live in it." Removing the people involved, this claim is that "Science is one who has helped make our world better." I hate to tell them this, but "Science" isn't a thing, let alone a "one", an entity, a person who has done anything at all.

Thankfulness is defined as "readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness." Gratitude includes the notion of a kindness shown, a benefit given. Kindness and giving require an intelligence that is kind and generous. Despite the loud and constant complaints that we need to keep God out of the public square, it seems as if atheists are either going to be irrational, reflecting a gratitude for a kindness given by a non-existent being such as Science, Modern Technology, or Nature, or they will have to give up Thanksgiving. You know, Christmas is even harder. But, hey, I'm not suggesting that atheists can't be grateful and rightly so to people who have done nice things. Nor am I anticipating that atheists will be giving up their Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays. Nor am I even expecting them to be rational on these points. Sin, you see, rots the brain. I don't expect more.

3 comments:

Marshal Art said...

This notion of secular thanksgiving comes to mind every year for me. To whom are they giving thanks? It would have to be to a specific person as opposed to even a collection of them. In other words, the actual farmer from whom they bought their food, as opposed to farmers in general for engaging in the act of farming as a way of making a living. But even the individual isn't farming to provide food for the masses as much as he is farming to provide an income for himself and his family. So, to get food, one pays the farmer (or grocer) and thus, one is not receiving anything but exchanging one thing for another. It's polite to say "Thank you" at the completion of such transactions, but it's not as if one is receiving without exchanging something for it.

When we give thanks at this time of year, it is to give thanks for that which we received without payment. We regard God as the ultimate source of all we receive, earn, produce or even take. The secular wishes to imitate this spirit of thanks, likely knowing inherently that they are indeed recipients in the same way we are. They feel the gratitude but cannot resolve the feeling without acknowledging what they'd prefer to reject.

They'd look far less foolish without the pretense.

Marshal Art said...

I almost forgot. I was going to liken it to the nonbelievers blessing another for a sneeze. I asked an atheist friend who said "bless you" after I sneezed, "Who is doing the blessing?" She stumbled with her answer, especially after I told her that humans can't bless another human. She tried to refer to a man giving his blessings to the actions of his child, but that is simply showing he doesn't object. Not an actual blessing. I know she was just being polite, but I couldn't resist busting her chops.

Stan said...

I would suppose we could be grateful to a farmer for the food we bought that he provided, but it does seem ludicrous to say, "Thank you, dear farmer, for working to support your family and selling me stuff at a profit toward that end." But, hey, who am I to say?